MRO

It seems like just last week we were singing the praises of the oft-overlooked Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Over the weekend, the Mars satellite sporting one of the coolest cameras this side of the asteroid belt announced new data suggesting a surface formation on the Red Planet long held to be an impact crater may have been misinterpreted. The MRO's new analysis of the geology at the 57 mile-wide Mclaughlin Crater turned up evidence that the massive impact formation may have been a Martian lake at one point in its history -- and that the lake may have been fed by plentiful groundwater long ago in the planet's past. Read More

See that newly formed set of tracks in Mars' Gale Crater? Those are the tracks left behind by the Curiosity rover, which can apparently be seen from orbit. Well, from orbit around Mars and with about a bazillion dollars worth of camera equipment, we mean. Still, it's pretty cool to see the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's latest shot of the rover's... rovings, I guess? It's good to know that there's a backup plan in place on the chance that NASA loses contact with the rover, even if being able to see where it's tracks suddenly end seems like a pretty low-tech solution to a potential problem. Keep reading for a bigger photo with more Mars goodness.
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